


what a blessing (to feel your love)

by wildflower (minjilix)



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Good Friend Alex Mercer (Julie and The Phantoms), Lowercase, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, Pining, Polyamory, Song Lyrics, ambiguous setting i couldnt decide, bobby and reggie briefly date other people, but not really, idiots to lovers, it backfires, mention of alcohol and being drunk, plagiarizing 5sos for the sake of sunset curve lyrics, pre canon?, reggie tries to play matchmaker, we die like sunset curve, who knows. not me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29938257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minjilix/pseuds/wildflower
Summary: luke has two approaches to his crushes:- nice and soft, joke with him not about him, be sweet because he's sweet (reggie)- put shaving cream under his pillow. put a note in his locker that says "get out of my band loser". call him a nice petname, like, scum of the earth. (bobby)or:reggie's Knows bobby and luke like each other. but it also turns very confusing and just something doesn't add up, ever. until it does.
Relationships: Bobby | Trevor Wilson/Luke Patterson, Bobby | Trevor Wilson/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters, Bobby | Trevor Wilson/Reggie Peters, Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 53





	what a blessing (to feel your love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bearboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearboy/gifts).



> halfassed bc i wrote this in one night while already sleep deprived but !!!! had fun doin it !! for vee bc they listen to all my stupid jatp hcs INCLUDING my bobby/reggie/luke crackship infodump.  
> physically hurt to not write julynn in
> 
> title from red desert by 5sos 

it starts with luke—wait no, it might have started with bobby. or not. or maybe both. reggie’s not sure anymore. what he _is_ sure of, is that it starts and then Never Stops. 

So first of all, reggie and bobby are close friends, because bobby is cool and likes music and reggie can never shut up and he needs to make friends, and bobby seems to be one of the only people who actually listens to him talk. bobby also talks to him about stuff, not as much as reggie does, but enough that he thinks he knows the guy pretty well by now, what with four years of friendship and all that. 

okay there’s bobby. and then there’s luke and alex, his _other_ cool friends who also like music _and_ are in a band with him. they are also willing to hear whatever ramble or rant he needs to go on about whatever it is he consumed that particular moment, or months before, or years— whatever, thing is, they are nice and cool and so is bobby! so of course, the logical thing is that reggie introduces them. 

plus bobby would work great with the band and a new member never hurts anybody, right?

 _wrong_ alex would say now, as they watch luke and bobby bicker over something neither of them can really remember and probably doesn’t even make sense.

reggie thinks it’s funny how much they argue and bicker and shout at each other because _we just can’t stand each other reg!_ like they aren’t literally the same person at times. alex doesn’t find it as funny, maybe a little, but that’s only when he’s not annoyed at their delayed rehearsal and sick of the noise those two make—which is now, if the way he’s looking at them with narrowed eyes and his sticks between his fingers looking ready to stab them both. reggie takes a few steps back just in case.

so whatever—they argue, that’s normal, reggie argues with his friends all the time over movies or songs or music genres (country music _is_ a valid genre, luke), but he’s not even sure if what bobby and luke do is arguing anymore. like, at best luke will chew bobby out for fucking up a riff or messing up the lyrics, — that’s normal if a little unfair because reggie also messes up the lyrics sometimes but luke never yells at him like that — and then bobby will yell right back and they’d start going back and forth with dumb comebacks and even dumber insults. and at worst, well at worst luke will purposely do something so bobby snaps at him and they can start throwing words at each other for _no reason at all_.

or that’s what reggie thought it was. just luke being his idiot self and looking for a fight because he’s just Like That—except. except it’s not, and reggie feels kinda dumb he hadn’t noticed before, the way luke didn’t even look remotely mad and-or offended when the arguments were happening. in fact, reggie’s pretty sure he’s seen him beam at them right after bobby or himself declare who the winner is without any criteria.

and is not just that, reggie, thought, it’s the way he teases bobby every chance he gets, inserts himself in his space and annoys him for the sake of it. and reggie would say luke is like that with everyone, which he is, _to a degree_. just never as often as it is with bobby.

luke likes to annoy alex, because alex gets frustrated easily and it is kinda funny when he goes all disapproving-mom mode and chews them out for being so childish. they all do that, because it’s fun.

what they don’t do, for example, is drape themselves over bobby’s shoulders as he flirts with yet another girl, arms tight around him and prince-charming-grin on as they tell the girl something that’d make her scurry off and never talk to bobby again. because they are sane, and normal, and why would they ever want to keep bobby from getting some? (and maybe reggie has a slight problem with that but it’s nothing like luke’s reasons. he’s just scared the moment bobby gets a girlfriend he’ll leave them hanging to spend time with her, and then reggie will have no-one to infodump on about whatever stupid show or book he got into the weekend they spent apart, that’s all)

no, luke’s reasons, they are...something else, entirely. a whole new box to open and unpack and organize and put into neat little piles on a shelf where they are visible and it’ll make luke acknowledge them once and for all—because, well, reggie’s pretty sure luke has a crush on bobby. a big one at that. like, pigtail-pulling-you-because-i-can’t-even-fathom-liking-you type of crush. i hate to see you with other people so i’m gonna take up all your time crush. an, i think this is more than just a crush crush. reggie’s sure.

“god, whatever, you ass!” bobby yells, trying and failing to slap luke over the head. 

luke just sticks his tongue out at him moving his guitar so it doesn’t accidentally stab bobby in the stomach before he, successfully, slaps bobby’s shoulder. it would’ve probably turned into yet another fight if alex didn’t step in, quickly putting himself between the two boys and pushing their chests with his hands.

“just—let’s chill out and i don’t know, watch a movie or something,” he says, looking from luke to bobby and then back at luke, “i cannot stand you right now, i’m close to commiting murder,” 

reggie’s pretty sure alex has been close to commiting murder at least a half-dozen times, and he probably has a whole board with escape plans and how to get away with it if it ever happened. 

they settle down after that, the guitarists having filled their argument quota of the day and alex tired enough just from having to witness that. reggie just smiles and nods at the movie they chose, settling himself between bobby and luke and shrugging at alex’s exasperated sigh when he sees them slap each other from over reggie’s head. 

reggie has seen luke have crushes before. there’s the ones where he’s all smooth and flirty and charming, proving once again why he’s their beloved frontman. and then there’s the ones where he slips an anonymous note inside their locker and waits to see how they react. 

except that even if the note wasn’t anonymous, no one other than luke could’ve written it, after all, it does say;

_get out of my band, loser_

in luke’s adorably horrible chicken scratch and a wonky hear that looks more like a deformed potato than anything else. 

reggies isn’t even sure why he’s here right now, he was supposed to be at math class with bobby, but instead got dragged down the corridors by luke, who grabbed the back of his hoodie and practically choked him with it as they made their way to bobby’s locker.

“and you plan to achieve exactly what with this?” he asks, because he _has_ to know luke’s reasoning.

but luke just shrugs and tugs him more against the wall, his body pressing close and warm to reggie’s, hand holding his wrist securely, in what he deems honestly unnecessary, it’s not like bobby is gonna see them from the other side of the hallway, not while there’s a bunch of other students coming out of their own classes too.

still, they watch as bobby comes out of the classroom, talking to some girl reggie has only ever spoken to twice and one of those times was to ask her for a pencil. he didn’t know bobby and her were friends, huh. 

bobby walks towards his locker, only stopping his conversation with their classmate to open the locker, head turning towards her the moment he has the door pulled open. 

the note falls to his feet. classmate-girl points it out. and bobby bends down to pick it up.

reggie sees him narrow his eyes at the paper in that way he does when he’s trying to decipher what it says (aka every time he reads luke’s lyrics) and then he’s straightening up, eyes closing as he heaves a sigh. classmate-girl seems to ask him something but bobby just shakes his head.

and then he’s turning around, looking through the crowd of students until he spots reggie and luke, still against the wall.

luke waves his fingers at him, shit eating grin on his face and an air of smugness that even classmate-girl can probably feel all the way there. bobby flips him off, crumpling the note and throwing it forcefully into his locker. 

and the thing is, reggie has known bobby long enough to Know him. and reggie really prides himself in being good at reading his friends—so when he sees a small smile on bobby’s lips and notices the glance he throws luke when he’s walking away with classmate-girl in tow, he _Knows_ what it means. 

this is where reggie starts to wonder if it started with luke or with bobby. was it luke’s unwillingness and, frankly, terrible way to express his feelings that made him start to act like a five year old wanting the prettiest girl on the playground’s attention, or was it bobby with his smirks and jabs and stupid new lenghts he can come up to absolutely Not-tell anyone what he’s feeling, ever. 

he doesn’t know, and at this point it doesn’t even matter because it’s happening, and it’s inevitable. his two best friends have a crush on each other. reggie’s pretty sure they like Like each other.

it’s kinda funny if he thinks about it, because luke and bobby are so similar some times, in some ways. and he had been worried at first, before bobby had even made it into the band, if it was gonna be a problem, with luke’s stubbornness and bobby’s hotheadedness and tendency to question _everything_. (like “where does meat come from? oh? from there? that’s cruel i don’t like it anymore, fight me, dad”) he’d been worried they wouldn’t get along. oh boy, how wrong he was.

well, okay, if you’re looking at it from an outsider perspective, reggie can see how that could be considered them Not Getting Along. but reggie’s not an outsider. he’s their best friend, and he knows them more than they like to acknowledge, and he knows that they get on like a house on fucking fire.

“i think luke likes bobby,” he tells alex, because he’s dying to talk to someone about it and alex is the safest person to go about this, and also the only other person he ever actually talks to, anyways.

alex pauses in what he’s doing, looking up at reggie and away from his english homework, “uh, what?”

reggie leans in closer, almost on top of the other boy’s books, “i think—no, i _know_ luke likes bobby,” 

alex has a moment of consideration where he looks down at his books and then back at reggie before he sits up on the bed.

“o-kay...what makes you think that?” 

“well, for starters, he’s always teasing bobby and like tryin’ to get his attention, y’know—”

“he does that with all of us,” alex pauses, “pretty sure he’d die if he didn’t get any attention.”

reggie waves his hand, “no no, not like that. y’know when bobby is tryin’ to get someone’s number or he’s talking about a hot girl and luke interrupts him and then they start arguing and he doesn’t stop ‘tll bobby has totally forgotten about that person”

“hm...i guess,” he doesn’t sound convinced though, and reggie pushes.

“and! he’s always all over him—”

“yeah. like with us,”

“no! not like with us, alex you aren’t listening,”

alex huffs out a laugh, “reg, trust me, i am listening. but you’re kinda just listing all of luke’s annoying personality traits,” 

“okay well, does he like put himself all over you when you’re flirting with someone and then stays glued to you the rest of the day,”

“i don’t flirt with anyone,”  
“w—”

“he does that to _you_ too,” alex says, eyebrows raised and looking at reggie like he’s _daring_ him to prove him wrong.

“that’s different!” he whines, throwing his arms in the air.

“how so?”

“he likes bobby! he doesn’t like _me_!” 

“and how are you sure of that—”

the door to alex’s bedroom opens right then, halting their conversation entirely as bobby and luke come in, half wrestling half trying to get to the bed before the other. alex watches them with what seems straight up grief and reggie just waves at them. 

they stop kinda-choking each other once they are close enough to the bed that luke can flop on top of it, half of his body on reggie’s lap.bobby slides down to the floor, only his hand visible when he waves back at reggie.

“never riding with that thing again, ever,” luke says, words muffled by the comforter. 

“what thing?” reggie asks, as he pats luke’s head and plays with his messy hair. it’s getting long. it looks good, reggie likes it.

“bobby.” he replies, and then bobby says,

“fuck you too.” 

bobby puts spiders in luke’s guitar case one evening after school. not real spiders, of course, because as much as he loves all beings and respects them just as much as humans. he has told reggie multiple times that he’d rather swallow a rusty nail than touch a real, living walking spider. 

but they are realistic enough that at first glance you wouldn’t notice they are just plastic and synthetic fur (which, ew). reggie had gotten them from maya, a classmate from his art class that somehow always has the weirdest things laying around in her bag, with the reason that “they’ll make luke cry. probably.” and then she’d given him about five of them. 

obviously, reggie is not doing this because he wants to see luke cry or get scared (okay that’s a lie, he kinda wants to), but because this is bobby kind-of finally acting up and he’d come to reggie asking for help. and reggie is a good friend so of course he couldn’t say no.

and if bobby took him out for ice cream and drove them to the new shopping mall recently finished twenty minutes away then that was just a bonus. 

so back on track, bobby put fake-spiders inside luke’s guitar case for reasons he didn’t want to disclose with reggie but that doesn’t matter because he has his own suspicions anyways. 

luke hasn’t taken out his guitar yet, despite having arrived at the studio almost thirty minutes ago. instead, he’s sitting next to reggie on the couch, leg thrown over reggie’s lap and songbook open in between them, the lyrics for one of luke’s new songs scribbled messy and enthusiastic on the blank paper.

“so i was thinking, for this part,” he points at one of the verses, arm coming around reggie’s shoulder as he does so. his neck burns where luke’s skin is brushing against him. “bobby could actually play decently, i’ve made it easy enough for him,” 

there’s That smirk on his face, the one he does when he knows he’s about to be absolutely unbearable and it’s gonna get a reaction for sure. and it does, because of course it does, 

“piss off, patterson,” bobby grumbles, and reggie knows he’s a little grumpy from luke not even touching his guitar case yet. 

luke stares off to the side in mock contemplation “hmm, no i don’t think i will,” reggie muffles a laugh against luke’s shoulder.

“shut up, i bet i can do it ten time better than you,” bobby says, and then he straightens in his seat (which was just the old beanbag reggie rescued from his house before his dad could kick it some more and burst it open or something) looking at luke dead in the eye. “let’s prove it right now, take out your guitar, patterson,” oh he’s _evil_.

reggie bites his lips, abstaining from looking at any of them for the moment or else he’ll probably give bobby’s plan away, so he just focuses on luke’s terrible handwriting and tries not to vibrate with anticipation. 

_he’s only got half of my heart_

_‘cause you’ve got the other part_

reggie blinks down at the lyrics, fingers lightly grazing the ink on the page—

“what the fuck!?” luke yells, and reggie immediately looks up to find him staring at his case in horror and disgust, fake-spiders laying on the ground around him, one of them is even stuck in between the strings of his guitar.

bobby is laughing, loudly and delighted, body doubling over. reggie just watches him—watches them, as luke sprints over to where bobby is still losing his mind and tries to strangle him, or put him in a headlock, whatever it is. 

luke’s cheeks are red from embarrassment and bobby is out of breath from laughing so much, almost wheezing as he begs their leader for mercy when he starts poking bobby’s sides with his fingers.

alex, who had been resting against the couch on the floor, startles at all the noise but then rolls his eyes when he takes in the scene.

“you’re all hopeless,” he informs reggie, and then goes back to sleep.

(“thanks, reg, that was amazing,” bobby says to him long after rehearsal is done and he’s driving reggie back to his house.

reggie shrugs, “no problem, just don’t tell luke i helped you,” he sighs dramatically “or else he’ll take away my movie-choosing rights next movie night,”

bobby chuckles and pats reggie’s hand gently, “don’t worry, if he ever does that i’ll let you have mine,”

he ends up staying at bobby’s instead of his house. the sounds of smashing glass and the shouts of her mother reaching them even from all the way on the driveway. bobby didn’t ask, didn’t offer, he simply put the car in reverse and got the hell out of there. his hand stayed in reggie’s the whole way to his house)

luke has an assortment of nicknames for bobby, which range from “fuckface” to “scum of the earth” to just “bob” because he knows bobby despises it and goes a little bit unhinged when someone calls him that.

in luke’s book of Awful, Terrible, Very Bad Flirting, those are of course, terms of endearment. 

alex doesn’t believe him, but reggie knows it’s true. 

“he never calls anyone any of that, lex!”

“and i’m glad he doesn’t or he’ll get punched in the face immediately,” alex deadpans, this time he doesn’t even bother looking up from his calculus homework (it’s actually reggie’s but his brain fizzled out and went offline like three hours ago and he hadn’t been able to do anything at all except stare blankly at the page, so alex had taken it from him and started doing it) and reggie huffs.

“c’mon lex, believe me,” 

“reg, he literally calls you—”

“baby!” luke yells, attaching himself to reggie’s back like some kind of overgrown tick.

reggie yelps in surprise, doing his best to not topple down and plant his face onto alex’s desk as he holds luke’s weight.

“when did you get here?” he asks.

“like, just now but! not important, baby you have to stop him, he’s gonna—”

luke doesn’t get to finish because right then he’s getting grabbed by the collar of his jacket and dragged away from reggie by bobby, who’s….covered in glitter.

“i’m gonna maim you, patterson!” 

“it was an accident, i swear,” luke struggles to get out of bobby’s grip, looking scared for his life but also not containing his giggles. 

“do you know how hard it is to get this shit out of my car!?” 

luke is full on laughing now, hands against bobby’s chest as he tries to push him away, “i’m sorry! i’ll pay for it to get cleaned, i promise!” 

bobby narrows his eyes for a moment but then he’s letting go of luke, “fine, whatever,” 

there’s a few moments of silence where luke is just catching his breath and bobby is trying to get a much glitter off of himself as possible. there’s varying degrees of success there.

“i,” alex starts and then pauses, “you know what? never mind, just do your homework.”

bobby and luke look at each other,

“yes, mom,” they say.

(“he calls you _baby_ ,” alex whispers to him later on when they are all busy with their homeworks.

reggie shrugs, “so? he always does it,”

alex looks at him for a while, like he’s trying to see something. but reggie’s right, luke has been calling him that for a while now, maybe as long as he’s been playing push-and-pull with bobby. is how things are, it’s a fact of his life now. 

luke is their leader, luke is his best friend, luke calls him baby, luke likes bobby. 

he looks back down at his half finished history essay. there’s a burn in his chest he can’t explain.

“yeah, but—” alex stops himself as luke hops onto the desk, sitting right next to reggie’s homework and fiddling with one of bobby’s colored pens. 

they go back to working in silence after that. and reggie’s kinda glad alex decided to drop it.) 

another glass shatters against the wall of the kitchen. reggie isn’t sure how many glasses and plates they’ve lost to his parents’ fights now. it must be over twenty that’s for sure.

he’s tried to replace them as fast as he can before the lack of kitchen appliances becomes yet another topic of heated discussion among his parents. but sometimes there just isn’t time, and other imes there just isn’t enough money to replace all that they’ve broken. everything they’ve broken.

so a glass shatters against the wall, and reggie just stays where he is, against the wall of the hallway, the dim, dying out light giving him enough shadow to hide from his parents’ rage as they shout and yell over each other about whatever it is that set them off this time. 

he’s really hoping they’ll stop soon so he can sneak past them and out the door. bobby was supposed to pick them all up to go to this dumb party hosted by one of his uni friends that none of them have any idea where he got them considering he doesn’t even go to uni, but whatever. 

bobby is probably already waiting for him, along with luke and alex too, most likely. and reggie knows from experience, lots of neighbour complaints and a few visits from the police themselves that the noise of his parents’ fights carry out onto the street. it’s embarrassing, having to come out of the house everyone heard the shrill woman yell _i bet you were with that slut again, you asshole_ and they heard some more insults and even more things breaking and reggie has to keep his head down and pretend for a second those aren’t his parents until he gets into bobby’s car and away from all the noise. 

there’s a lull in all the noise for a second and reggie peeks his head out to see both his parents looking away from each other, backs turned and heads in hands. reggie takes this moment to practically bolt out the door, almost sagging in relief when he doesn’t hear another shout once the door is safely closed behind him. 

a car honks and he looks up to find his friend waiting for him. he waves at them and tries for a smile. doesn’t know if he manages it. 

the car ride is silent except for the radio that seems to be perpetually turned on no matter what time of the day is or who’s in the car with bobby. the tinny voice crackles from the beaten down speakers, reggie doesn’t understand half of the words it’s saying but he appreciates the ambient noise. he’ll probably go crazy if it was just him and the tense silence between his friends.

alex seems like he can’t take it anymore. he clears his throat, head turned towards reggie, “so, we haven’t been to a party in a while,” he comments

reggie chuckles, “you say that like you’ve gone to more than two parties,” and just like that the tense air is gone, and alex is shoving his shoulder playfully.

“hey! i’ve been to a bunch of parties, thank you very much,”

“your family’s christmas dinners don’t count as parties, lex,” luke says from the passenger seat, turning around to look at alex with mock pity.

“yeah, lex, i thought we’ve been over this,” bobby pretends to be disappointed, and alex starts to sputter.

“i hate both of you! all of you!” 

reggie is not drunk. reggie doesn’t exactly like getting drunk. but he likes getting tipsy, just the right amount into I’m Probably Gonna Fuck Something Up territory and But I’ll Know It Was Fucked up valley. Not ideal, per alex’s words, but better than luke, who gets absolutely smashed and turns into either an emotional idiot or a handsy idiot. very handsy. like, put his hands on your waist and nuzzle your neck handsy.

like he was doing to reggie, about five minutes ago before he bolted out of the room and out into the backyard, cheeks burning from more than just the alcohol.

he takes a deep breath and pretends like his insides don’t feel like they are turning to liquid.

“reg!” oh, okay that’s bobby. nice. bobby, with his arm around his shoulders and and his hair loosely tied back to keep it from his face, that's actually very close to reggie’s. yup. nice.

“hey, dude,” 

everything just feels so weird right now, and maybe it’s the beer that he drank or maybe it’s the physical contact in such a short amount of time but reggie’s skin is on fire and if he breathes deep enough he can feel something pressing against his ribcage, painful and like it’s trying to break through his chest.

“you doin’ okay?” bobby asks him, and he’s close enough that reggie can smell the scent of sweet alcohol, the only type of alcohol bobby drinks because he hates the bitter taste. 

reggie wonders if it’d taste good from bobby’s lips.

“uhm! yup, fine, peachy, just great,” he tries to subtly pull away from bobby’s grasp. “why’re you asking?”

bobby shrugs, “just checkin’,” and then he smiles at reggie and it’s like the entire backyard is on fire and reggie is just burning with it. what the actual fuck does that mean.

“well, i’m great, thanks for checking, bobby,” 

he can’t go back inside the house because then he’d have to confront a clingy, handsy, drunk luke who will probably attach himself to him like a goddamn leech and that’s not good. reggie doesn’t know why but his entire _self_ is just screaming at him to get out. so he does.

he pats bobby on the chest gently and as nicely as he can he frees himself from his grasp, ignoring the questioning look he gets in return.

(reggie meets tyler ten minutes after getting a safe distance away from luke, and bobby, and all... _that_ , whatever it was. 

tyler is a freshman at university and he thinks reggie’s leather jacket is cool. he listens to reggie ramble about the importance of leather jackets in the fashion world and then gives him his number.

“i’d be interested in hearing more about that,” tyler tells him smiling at him, “and about you, if possible,”

reggie was sure his entire face was red at that moment, but he managed to nod and mumble a “sure, of course,” 

turns out that tyler also likes hearing about reggie’s strong (and good) opinions about country music. and maybe it’s because he genuinely finds him interesting or maybe it’s because he likes shutting reggie up by kissing him. reggie doesn’t mind either one.)

bobby has a girlfriend, she’s pretty and funny and her name is riley and she is classmate-girl that was with him when luke left the (questionable love) note in bobby’s locker. she likes to hang off of his arm and laughs at all of their jokes and she thinks luke is an awesome singer. 

“my condolences, i hope you get through this rough patch in your life,” is what luke tells her when bobby introduces her to them.

riley looked thoroughly confused, and bobby groaned. reggie was expecting a new Argument to spark, but instead bobby just shook his head, smiled at riley and said, 

“just ignore him,” 

reggie likes riley. except he doesn’t. 

it isn’t necessarily something she’s done—or well _actively_ done anyways. no, she’s still nice and funny, and she never oversteps her boundaries and she doesn’t intrude on the band. but she likes bobby, and she’s his girlfriend and it makes things, weird.

bobby brings her to a few rehearsals, and each time the air is weird. tense. different. whatever, thing is, luke doesn’t get all up in bobby’s space the first chance he gets, and reggie is half expecting him to compensate it by being all up in _reggie_ ’s space instead— but nope, luke plays, sings, does flawlessly and all without stopping mid song to yell at bobby, or making reggie walk towards him during their shared verse. 

riley doesn’t notice that anything’s different, because it’s only different when she’s there. and it’s kinda driving reggie mad.

he doesn’t even know why luke is (maybe, possibly, could be?) avoiding him too! it’s not like _he_ ’s also dating riley or something. is it even a riley thing? or is it just a luke being moody thing? reggie has no fucking clue.

reggie sighs, letting himself drag down on the couch, the bass is on his lap and he absentmindedly fiddles with the strings.

“hey, lex,” alex makes a noise of acknowledgement, “bobby and luke have been acting weird haven’t they?” 

alex snorts, “you mean bobby got a girlfriend and luke doesn’t know how to handle it?” 

“i—uh, yeah, i guess,” 

“his loss. should’ve spent more time asking him out on dates and less on trying to put shaving cream under his pillow,”

“he tried to do what—wait! so you think that—?”

alex hums, getting up from his drum kit and walking towards reggie “i think that those two are idiots to lovers waiting to happen?” he asks before he sits down next to him, “yeah, i do,” 

reggie groans, betrayed “then why did you make me try so hard to make you believe!”

“no one told you to do it” alex laughs, “besides, that’s not all there is to it,” 

reggie looks at him, and finds alex already staring back. there’s this smile on his face, the one he gives reggie when he’s being really patient and nice with him because he knows it’s hard for reggie at the moment and he’ll wait however long until reggie is ready. he doesn’t know why that would fit this situation.

“what do you mean?”

“doesn’t matter for now,” alex replies, ominous, like the ass he is. “didn’t you have a date today?” 

reggie blinks up at him before springing up on the couch, bass almost falling on his feet, “fuck! yes i do!” 

he’d completely forgotten tyler had asked him out on a date, again, for the third time. he’d just gotten distracted with the whole My Friends Like Each Other But They Are Stupid diemma and _forgot_.

“d’you think bobby will drive me there?”

alex seems to consider it for a moment, a grimace on his face before he slowly nods, like he’s hesitant, “sure, if he isn’t busy,” 

(thankfully, bobby agrees to drive him to the cafe where he’s meeting tyler, even if riley is on the passenger seat and trying to start small talk with him, at least he gets there before he manages to be more than five minutes late. tyler is already waiting for him outside, and reggie smiles, feeling his cheeks burn as riley cooes.

“he seems sweet!”

“yeah,” reggie clears his throat, “he really is,”

bobby scoffs, “yeah, real sweet,” reggie doesn’t even bother dwelling on that, so he gets out of the car and waves at tyler. he only turns around once to make sure bobby and riley are gone.)

bobby is the one that tells them about the break-up. 

they are on the couch in the studio, practically dogpiled on each other, doing nothing because there’s nothing to do at all and school is almost out which means they’ve finished all their extra homework so they can start their rest early. 

“riley broke up with me,” he starts, and doesn’t say anything else for a while. no one does, “saw it coming, though,” 

alex says “sorry to hear,” 

“eh, it’s whatever, we’re better off as friends,” bobby says. 

luke sits up on the couch, his feet digging into reggie’s side, “good riddance,” he says, and then grins “for her i mean, i guess she got cured of the bobby-disease” 

and then reggie is getting almost suffocated under luke and bobby’s wrestling, while alex somehow gracefully slithers off of the couch and watches them with an amused fond smile. 

he’s half trapped between his two friends and the couch cushions but still laughs, feeling lighter than he’s felt in weeks. it’s nice. 

the thing is, reggie’s never had a serious break up, most of his partners hadn’t been serious, just a bit fooling around when they were free or keeping each other company when they didn’t want to do anything. friends with benefits, reggie would’ve called it more than straight up _dating_. 

but he thought that him and tyler were dating, and apparently they are—or were, because tyler thought that this required a proper meeting. a sit down in a public place and talk like people meeting.

which is, him breaking up with reggie. 

“it’s not that i don’t like you,” he sounds almost pained, as if the thought of reggie thinking he doesn’t like him is physically hurting him, “it’s just that...i don’t think your...mind is in this relationship,” he says that carefully, like he’s picking his words randomly off from a board and trying to make them make sense.

“w-what does that even mean?” reggie is more confused than anything. he thought they were going good, steady even?

tyler bites his lip, looking a bit unsure, “i just don’t think _you_ like _me_ , that’s all,”

reggie is baffled for a moment. “wh—huh? of course i like you! you’re great,” 

tyler laughs softly, “thank you, really, but— uh, just, reg, you’re great. i’m just not the one for you,”

okay that’s just no usually how it goes is it? isn’t he supposed to be told _he_ ’s not the one for _them_? reggie is just so lost right now. he doesn’t even have it in himself to be properly hurt or heartbroken right now. 

“i... okay, if this is what you want, i guess,”

“yeah, it is,” and the way tyler smiles at him kind of reminds him a little bit of alex. 

(as he’s walking back home, reggie realizes that it’s not that he didn’t have it in himself to be heartbroken. it’s just he simply wasn’t.

it stung a bit, and it was still sad. he liked tyler, he was a cool dude, but—yeah, something was there, something about what he had said to reggie.

 _i’m not the one for you_. then who is it? 

this is dumb, he thinks, and makes his way to luke’s house were bobby told him they would be at after their brief call where he told them about tyler.

bobby had offered to pick him up but reggie just kind of wanted some time alone.) 

this is how it happens; luke forgets his songbook on reggie’s room. it’s by far not the first time it happens and it probably won’t be the last. 

so reggie picks it up with a sigh, feeling a bit like alex when he’s reprimanding him for losing one of his bracelets _again_ —it’s not his fault they are loose on his wrists okay—and okay he picks it up, and that’s normal he’s done this a hundred times. it’s still normal when a piece of paper falls out of the book, roughed up and stained with ink in classic luke fashion. 

he picks the paper up too, turns it over and reads a bit of the lyrics scrawled messily on there, they look almost as if luke was afraid the words’ll leave as soon as he’s thought of them. 

_You've got a million reasons to hesitate_

_But darling, the future is better than yesterday_

_I wasted so much time on people that reminded me of you_

_Gave you a million reasons to walk away_

_I've seen the red, I've seen the blue_

_Take all of me_

_Deep to where your secrets hide_

_Where we've been a thousand times_

_Swallow every single lie_

_Take all of me_

reggie knows that luke, deep down under all that posturing, is a romantic at heart. it’s in the way he plays, in the way he writes and sings and in the way he looks at life, in general. 

and he’s read some of the cheesy, downright sappy lyrics luke entertains sometimes, but those—those are different. 

these are not sappy so much as they are sad. yearning, maybe. reggie doesn’t know, doesn’t care to think about it anyways, something about it makes his chest burn and compress and he really dislikes that feeling.

there is the fact that he knows who these lyrics are for, or at least the most likely option. they seem fairly new, not as crossed out or torn as other pages. he resists the urge to crumple it in his hands and throw it away.

and then there’s that whole thing, the, something, whatever it’s not even about _who_ the song is for not if— not if it is for who reggie thinks it is. and okay, he’s driving himself mad.

he takes a breath and tells his damn self to relax, it isn’t even that deep. he’s just being an idiot like always. of course. 

logical course of action? walk all the way to luke’s house to give him back the songbook and Forget about the lyrics and the possible small crisis he just had. 

does it even bother him if this is about bobby? he thinks, and no, it really doesn’t. or it does...? but not in _that_ way. no, it kinda feels like when bobby started getting more popular with the girls and reggie was in the constant fear that one day he’ll be replaced by a pretty blonde who knew how to keep bobby entertained better than him.

it’s like when luke flirted with people after gigs and reggie couldn’t talk his ear off about how cool it was and had to just fidget and watch as the person scribbled their number either on a napkin, or cardboard or even luke’s arm, and by the time they were done reggie didn’t even feel like talking about it anymore. 

and maybe it’s also kinda like when alex tells him they can’t hang out because he’s busy. but it’s not, like at all. well, the principle is there, he guesses, Not Wanting To Be Left Out.

but he’s also never wanted to take alex away from prying eyes and pick-up lines and flirty-touches-on-the-arm and he really has never seriously thought about kissing alex like he has with— and yeah, okay. 

it’s like his brain is finally connecting the dots, very slowly, and years later. but connecting them nonetheless. and it’s probably gonna send him into a mock-existential crisis. soon. so he jogs up the last step towards luke’s house and hesitates before knocking, immediately regretting his decision when mrs.patterson calls out a _be right there_.

he can do this. he can. he’s just returning luke’s songbook. luke’s songbook where he has romantic songs about someone that’s not reggie and it’s actually reggie’s other best friend which is fine, and it actually really is fine but jesus fuck he might be in love with both of them because nothing ever in his life can be normal. at all.

“reggie, so nice to see you,” mrs.patterson startles him out of his thoughts, and reggie smiles at her, trying his best not to give away that he’s slowly dying inside.

“hi, mrs.patterson! nice to see you too. i came to bring luke this,” he holds up the notebook up to her and she shakes her head fondly, “he left it at my house again,” 

“of course he did. come over, they’re in his room,” she ushers him inside the house and closes the door behind them.

“they?”

“him and bobby,” and then she’s off to the kitchen. great. 

if reggie has to psyche himself up before going to luke’s room then that’s no one’s business but himself. 

he doesn’t bother knocking, reggie never knocks. this is practically his second home and he’s not _that_ polite with luke anyways. 

of course, when he opens the door, luke and bobby are. well, he’s not sure what they are doing, but their faces are very close, as in reggie could just push them a little bit and they’d be kissing (and there’s a thought he absolutely doesn’t hate but wasn’t expecting either), but the moment they notice reggie they jump back, luke is red down to his neck and bobby looks annoyed until he actually notices is reggie standing there staring at him and he relaxes, knocking his shoulder against luke’s. 

“hey reg, didn’t know you were coming,” luke says, and reggie lets him pretend he can’t hear the small panic in his voice.

“me neither,” he says instead, “but you forgot this,” he shows him the songbook and holds it out for him. 

luke takes it, embarrassment clearly forgotten and now he’s beaming at reggie. it’s cute. sickeningly cute. “oh! i knew i’d left it somewhere that wasn’t here,” he looks pointedly at bobby, but the other boy just rolls his eyes. “thanks reg,” 

he shrugs, “no problem, just don’t lose it again,” 

and then there’s the silence reggie hates, the one where no one has anything left to say but he wants to say So Many Things and it’s awkward and stuffy. 

he puts his hand inside the pockets of his hoodie. he feels the paper inside of them and blinks.

“oh, right, here,” taking it out he holds it out to luke, “this fell out of it,” 

it takes a moment for luke to realize what it is and then he’s going red again, his ears too. reggie pushes down the visceral urge to kiss him, to just straight up kiss him right then and there.

“did you— did you read it?” luke asks. reggie nods, slowly. it seems to pique bobby’s interest. because then he’s leaning over luke’s shoulder, trying to read what the paper says.

luke snatches it away before he can, cradling it close to his chest, “fuck off, wilson!” 

“what!? what is it i wanna see now!” 

“absolutely not. piss off.”

reggie watches them struggle for the poor piece of paper, almost afraid they are gonna tear it apart. he lets it happen for a few moments, content to just watch his two best friend in their Natural Habitat of being Dumb, before he asks luke,

“who are they about? the lyrics, i mean,” he nods his head towards the paper and luke stops dead in his tracks where he was climbing the bed to hold the paper over bobby’s head.

“uh. no one.” luke is a bad liar, everyone knows that, but he’s really trying to one-up himself right now. “absolutely nobody you would ever know. at all.”

“...right,” bobby says slowly, “so they are about someone then?”

“no! i just said they weren’t!”

reggie snorts, “sure they aren’t,” 

“h— hey! this is bullying. you’re bullying me!”

“we are,”

“yeah, so what,” 

reggie has to laugh. it’s just too much. his friends are stupid, and they are absolute idiots, and he’s so in love with them it’s kinda hurting him, like, physically. or maybe that’s the stress. could be either. 

bobby grins at him, sharp and _watch me_ like, so reggie does, and he watches as he grabs luke’s ankle and tugs him down the bed. 

luke goes down with a surprised yelp and then he’s trying to kick bobby off, but that makes him unable to protect the paper so reggie just grabs it, holds it over his head like luke did to bobby a few seconds ago. 

“so, who are they about?” he doesn’t know why he’s pushing. he knows who they are about, but he just— he needs luke to say it. 

“yeah, tell us, we’re sooo curious,” bobby sounds sarcastic, or maybe fake-excited, and reggie doesn’t know what it means. but luke just scoffs indignantly and says nothing.

“i mean,” reggie reads the words again, mostly just for show “i think i know who they are about but,” 

“yo— you know?” luke asks, turning to look at reggie even though he’s still trying to get bobby to let go of his ankle.

“yeah, i think i do,” 

bobby doesn’t let go of luke, but he does stop trying to suffocate him with his arm, and he looks smug for some reason. wait. did— does bobby know?

luke says nothing for a few seconds and then he’s groaning, head falling back against the bed, “fine! fine! yes, they’re about you! happy now?” 

he’s not looking at either of them, but reggie has a feeling he is Not talking to bobby. not with the way bobby’s smiles widens and he looks at reggie, like he’s waiting for him to reply.

“w— what?” 

“the lyrics, the song whatever, it’s about you, i don’t know why you have to make me Say it when you _know_ ,”

“i’ts about...me?” he just needs to be sure, just to check.

“yes? they— wait, you didn’t know?”

luke sits up on the bed now. even bobby seems confused.

“no? why would i think they are about me, what,”

“then who did you— “

“i thought they were about bobby!”

bobby stares at him and then he’s laughing, but it’s soft and reggie really really likes it. 

“nah, i got mine like a week ago, was less sappy,” he shrugs, like he just didn’t destroy reggie’s world.

“you got yours what?”

okay so what the fuck, right? like what. why would the song even be about reggie that’s like, not how it works at all. and what the hell does bobby mean? did luke make multiple songs? did he do one for each of them? god is this a thing for the _whole_ band including alex and reggie just totally made a fool of himself or— 

bobby then says “luke is an idiot, and has no concept of what human emotions are, so as any normal idiot would, he wrote us a song. songs. whatever,” he pauses, “love songs. as in. those are his confessions.” 

“oh,”

oh.

wait.

What.

“confessions? why would you confess to me?” 

luke looks pained at that, like reggie’s question just stabbed him in the knee and told him to run a marathon.

“because i like you?”

“...as in...like _like_ ,” 

it’s bobby who replies,.“yes, reg, as in like _like_ ,” 

“oh,” reggie says again, for a lack of better Everything. “you...like us both?”

luke nods, and now he looks nervous and it makes reggie get nervous, for some damn reason. 

“but— but bobby likes you too, doesn’t he? so why, i mean, me? i mean,” 

“reg,” bobby calls out to him, he’s no longer sitting down (on top, actually) next to luke anymore, but instead he’s closer to reggie, and he places a gentle hand on his arm, “yes, i like luke but i...also like you,” 

so here’s reggie, who has kind of just had the biggest revelation about his entire short life about an hour ago. he realized he’s in love with his best friends, has been probably for far too long, and has now found out that hey! said best friends _also_ like him. both of them. and they like each other. 

reggie would laugh at how ridiculous it all is if he wasn’t practically vibrating out of his skin with the need to hide and run and analyze everything that just happened (and is happening) and the extreme deep want to wanting to burrow himself into luke and bobby’s arms because holy shit this definitely does not happen every day and he is so lucky.

“i mean, if you’re not comfortable with this we can just forget about it— “ bobby’s voice breaks him out of his thoughts and reggie flinches, clinging onto the sleeve of bobby’s hoodie when he tries to pull away.

“what? no! i’m— i was just,” he takes a breath “comfortable with what, exactly?” 

luke purses his lips, thinking about his words, “we were talking about, uhm, us, before you got here— “

“you talk with your mouths together,” he asks because okay he had to. that didn’t look like talking. at all.

“hey! listen, he was threatening me! we weren’t about to do anything,” 

“threatening you? about what?”

he sighs, like it’s causing him so much trouble to speak like a proper person, “bobby said if i didn’t properly talk to you about it he’d dye my hair neon pink while i’m asleep,”

“oh...well, you’d pull it off,” he smiles at the glare luke sends him, “but you were actually...talking about me? as in, us? us three?”

bobby nods, “yeah, just, tell you at least, how we feel,”

reggie’s not sure he’s seen bobby blush, like ever, at all somehow. but fuck it’s _cute_ and he almost forgets he’s supposed to reply to that.

“right, and that is…”

“that we want to date you— like, both of us, like the three of us as a— “

“throuple,” luke supplies, bobby glares at him.

“it’s okay if you don’t feel the same, of course we understand— “

“jeez, bobby, at least let me tell you how i feel before jumping to conclusions,” he focuses his gaze on the grip he has on bobby’s hoodie, twisting the sleeve between his fingers, “i like you too. both of you.”

and then luke is crowding his space too, all wide-eyed and smiley and he looks so happy reggie could just melt on the spot.

“you do?” bobby asks, and yeah, reggie could just melt right here right now. or maybe his heart will explode with how many goddamn emotions it went through in less than seven hours. he’ll die and it’ll be all their fault.

he nods his head anyways, the back of his neck burns and he’s sure his cheeks are just as red as luke’s “yeah, probably for a, ah, a while,” 

luke’s hand slides into his, interlocking their fingers in a way that reggie is all too familiar with. it feels nice. it has always been there, reggie knows this, this is a fact of his life, luke holds his hand and it fits perfectly with his.

“so? what do you say?” luke questions, his hand squeezing reggie’s. bobby scoffs at him and hits him on the shoulder, but then he’s turning to reggie, smiling like he did to riley that time ago except way softer and like this one’s just meant for reggie alone. he hopes it is.

“you don’t have to answer now, we can take our time,” 

reggie feels like he needs to take All The Time, like right now, because everything is so much, like every emotion in his body has begun going insane at the same time and they won’t calm down any time soon. he wonders if they can hear how loud his heart is beating against his chest, so loud and hard reggie’s surprised it isn’t practically breaking through his skin right now.

“i...think i’d like that— us, i mean, the three of us, yeah, that’d be. nice. really nice,”

is a fact of his life now, that luke’s hands fit perfectly in his, that bobby’s arms hold him the way he needs to be held. that both of them make reggie feel like everything is alright as long as he has them, as long as they have each other, pointless bickering and evil pranks included. it’s alright. it makes sense now.

(“finally!” alex exclaims a week later when he finds them in the studio, luke’s hand under reggie’s shirt and bobby’s face half hidden in the crook of reggie’s neck, lips still pressing softly against his skin, “but disgusting. get up! i sit there too, fuckers!”)

**Author's Note:**

> vee: cant stop thinkin abt those three idiots lol  
> me: oh worm? *springs 8k fics about abt it*  
>  anyways , stolen lyrics are from 5sos album C A L M (kill my time, best years and lover of mine) 


End file.
